Given the pre-release backlash from media watchdogs over the level of violence depicted in Sega's upcoming Wii title Madworld, publisher Sega is said to be in touch with officials of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and Pan-European Gaming Information system (PEGI) in an effort to head off the type of outright ban imposed on Rockstar Games' controversial Manhunt 2 last year.

Nintendic reports on the dialogue between Sega and the ratings bodies. Of particular significance is the BBFC. The organization was behind the Manhunt 2 ban, which was later overturned by Britain's High Court. More recently government officials have indicated that their preference is to turn the U.K.'s game rating chores over to the BBFC. The British game industry, however, would prefer PEGI.

Nintendic quotes Sega exec David Corless:

Yes, [Madworld's] violent. We don’t try to hide that, but as publishers, we see it as a fantasy game - it’s fantasy violence. It’s over the top. It’s cartoony. We also take the violence very seriously. We are working with the age rating boards, with PEGI and with BBFC. We’re not at the end of the game’s development, but we’re working with them now to make sure that we don’t go over the top. The game has been banned in Germany; there’s no getting around that unfortunately. But we are taking it seriously and we’re going to make sure that this game is rated for the appropriate audience.

They shouldn't HAVE to cooperate with them. To me, this is more than a video game issue. It's a human rights issue. Someone needs to go to the UN about the whole censorship issue and convince them to add excessive censorship as a crime against humanity punishable by at least some time in prison for the perpetrators, or expulsion from the UN if it's bad enough, *cough* Germany *cough*.

Join the YouTube Boycott! Avenge the suspension of PlayItBogart and the hacking of Armake21!

Doesn't SEGA understand that this doesn't work? YOU CAN NOT REASON WITH THESE TYPES OF PEOPLE. They want everything to be portrayed all pleasant and cheerfull, but when that's what you give 'em, they bitch about "misrepresenting" things. They will always find something to bitch about. Always. Honestly, I hope they cut the game up and it gets banned anyway, just so they learn not to reason with the kinds of people who spend their time looking for anything to cry about.

Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. HOLD THE LINE. DO NOT BUDGE.

Dumbasses...

-Entertainment isn't the reason the world sucks. It's the reason we know the world sucks. For information on games and psychology, look up: Jonathan Freedman(2002)Block & Crain(2007)Grand Theft Childhood, by Harvard researchers Larry Kutner&Cheryl Olson

Reality/////////////////////////////////////Fantasy. Seems like a pretty thick line to me...

The entire game industry should refuse to release games or consoles to the UK and Australia until this shit stops...in the end, they (UK and Australia) will be better off.

-Entertainment isn't the reason the world sucks. It's the reason we know the world sucks. For information on games and psychology, look up: Jonathan Freedman(2002)Block & Crain(2007)Grand Theft Childhood, by Harvard researchers Larry Kutner&Cheryl Olson

Reality/////////////////////////////////////Fantasy. Seems like a pretty thick line to me...

The "highest common tolerance" approach doesn't work. Suppose the games industry shuts out the US for the sexual censorship, Germany for banning nazi references, China for anything that disagrees with the party line, the UK and Australia for protesting violent content... That doesn't leave a lot of sales.

Yeah, it's a shitty deal for the industry, but eventually enough game players would get pissed off enough that they'd stop buying, and with the boycot method they'd get pissed off at the Government for denying them their games. It'll never happen though. The Game industry is a bussiness above all else.

-Entertainment isn't the reason the world sucks. It's the reason we know the world sucks. For information on games and psychology, look up: Jonathan Freedman(2002)Block & Crain(2007)Grand Theft Childhood, by Harvard researchers Larry Kutner&Cheryl Olson

Reality/////////////////////////////////////Fantasy. Seems like a pretty thick line to me...

Interesting how the game is already banned in Germany when it hasn't even been finished yet. That can't bode well for German gamers. What's next, they'll ban a game based on the title alone before any screenshots are released?

This whole article is a pretty good example of why I dislike the government getting involved with any form of entertainment/art. It just becomes another "selling point" if you will for when elections roll around.

And indeed, it has not been banned, Sega is wrong here. It is not possible for anything to be banned in Germany before release. They could be denied an age rating, but it has not been banned yet - that would be against the German constitution that clearly says that banning can only happen after first publishment.

I didn't notice that. Perhaps this is a case of saying two opposite so that both groups (gamers with bloodlust and censors) will be satisfied. Or maybe they just mean they won't go over the top in terms of realism, who knows.

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Debates are like merry go rounds.
Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.

Well, it's Sega's fault for buying in to all this nonsense. If you're making a violent game, make a freaking violent game. Apparently for them sales are more important than freedom of expression. Maybe that's normal for a publisher but as a designer I would feel a bit cheated when my publisher went out to suck up to ratings organizations and some of my ideas had to go. Especially when it's a bunch of hypocrites they're sucking up to..

(Note to the British: I say "government" because the BBFC needs government power to enforce these bans. Without it, threats of refused rating are worthless.)

Even though you have taken great pains to explain your usage it is, unfortunately, incorrect. The power to enforce the law is not that of Government, but that of the State. The power of the State is exercised through Parliament who enacted the VRA 1984. That is the source of the BBFC's current responsibility. Once Parliament has enacted legislation it is the responsibility of the Government to ensure it is properly enforced.

The distinction is absent in the United States. The only time state is used is to refer to one of the fifty landmasses composing our nation. In the U.S., anything that makes or orders enforcement of laws is considered either the government itself or an arm of the government.

Uh-huh, testicles. Like, chopping them off. That's the problem. That would be why Manhunt 2 got the AO rating. Funny thing, the AO rating isn't a ban. The ESRB has no power other than to issue ratings. The game companies ban AO content on their consoles, not the ESRB. Go see for yourself. The only game that didn't have a sexual component was a game where you actually gambled.

Then why did they have to not only remove the worst testicle-related executions, but also blur ALL executions and remove several decapitations/head disintigrations? As well as shorten the dentist chair execution to get rid of the tooth pulling.

I don't know, possibly for the same reason you don't find gta mods that add children (well at least I haven't found any).

----------------------------------------------------
Debates are like merry go rounds.
Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.

or the ones blocking your entrance to court rooms?(cause you 'figuratively' threatened to blow up court houses... with threats of making some explicit pictures come true...)

or the cyber crimes devision tracking than spam machine which is you? By the way, how did you ever get away with spamming public websites (which are frequented by minors studing law) with pictures of gay porn?

Or are you talking about that crossing guard near your house that always helps feeble minded persons of age across the street, you know the one that helps you...

Jack Thompson + Is this a great "A" or what + B trivial action + time = Failure

Have you ever noticed that everytime you say that that afterwards whatever trival filing or letter you write always ends in failure. Not often ends in failure. Always. Or are you pattern recognition skills that underdeveloped?

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ZippyDSMlee: .....win8 hates any left over hidden install partitions from other version of windows....only waste 5 hours finding that out...its ahrder than you think keeping up with 4 or 5 HDDS......03/03/2015 - 4:44am

Matthew Wilson: I am going to pax east, any games you guys want me to check out?03/02/2015 - 11:23pm

ZippyDSMlee: No one remembers the days of Cinemagic and Cynergy eh? :P, meh even MGS is getting to film like....03/02/2015 - 8:44pm

MechaTama31: I was about to get all defensive about liking Metal Gear Solid, but then I saw that he was talking about "cinematic" as a euphemism for "crappy framerate".03/02/2015 - 8:29pm

prh99: Just replace cinematic with the appropriate synonym for poo and you'll have gist of any press release.03/02/2015 - 5:34pm

Monte: Though from a business side, i would agree with the article. While it would be smarter for developers to slow down, you can't expect EA, Activision or ubisoft to do something like that. Nintnedo's gotta get the third party back.02/28/2015 - 4:36pm

Monte: Though it does also help that nintendo's more colorful style is a lot less reliant on graphics than more realistic games. Wind Waker is over 10 years old and still looks good for its age.02/28/2015 - 4:33pm

Monte: With the Wii, nintnedo had the right idea. Hold back on shiny graphics and focus on the gameplay experience. Unfortunatly everyone else keeps pushing for newer graphics and it matters less and less each generation. I can barely notice the difference02/28/2015 - 4:29pm

Monte: ON third party developers; i kinda think they should slow down to nintendo's pace. They bemoan the rising costs of AAA gaming, but then constantly push for the best graphics which is makes up a lot of those costs. Be easier to afford if they held back02/28/2015 - 4:27pm

Matthew Wilson: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/02/28/the-world-is-nintendos-if-only-theyd-take-it/ I think this is a interesting op-ed, but yeah it kind of is stating the obvious.02/28/2015 - 2:52pm